Illinois may be Midwestern island of distrust, but few think much of Trump

We’ve now endured just over a year of Donald J. Trump as our nation’s president and have even seen the sight of the Orange one delivering a State of the Union address.

Does anybody like Donald Trump?

What does it say that only 38 percent of the public approves of his performance – far less than most past presidents. Even Barack Obama, who at this point in his presidency had a 57 percent majority of the people approving of him.

THE GALLUP ORGANIZATION showed a state-by-state breakdown this week of what we think of the Trump administration.

We here in Illinois give the man a 33 percent approval rating, slightly lower than the national average and less than all the surrounding states.

But it probably should be noted that even in places like Indiana, Iowa, Missouri Wisconsin, Trump does not exceed 50 percent approval amongst those that Gallup surveyed.

In the land of Hoosiers, a place that gave Trump Mike Pence as his vice president and a place that Trump likes to praise as a model for what Illinois and Chicago ought to try to be like, Trump only gets a 44 percent approval rating.

IN FACT, ONLY 12 of the 50 states give Trump a 50 percent-or-more approval. The only one of those anywhere near to us is Kentucky (51 percent) – which borders up against the southern end of Illinois, but is a land where the locals like to point out that they’re closer physically and in spirit to places like Jackson, Miss., than to Chicago.

Pence presence not enough to make Hoosiers like Trump

I’m sure on some level, these figures will bother Trump – although I’m sure he’ll come up with some nonsense rhetoric intended to make it appear as though the American people adore him.

Will it rival Sally Field’s Oscar acceptance of 1985. “You like me, you really like me.” Which sounded cutesy and adorable coming from the “Places in the Heart” actress, but would most likely sound insipid coming from Melania’s husband.

As for Illinois, the notion of a 62 percent disapproval rating sounds right, although I’m sure rural parts of central Illinois won’t want to believe it.

Did we really like her?

THEY’RE THE PARTS of Illinois that Gov. Bruce Rauner is relying upon if he’s to have any chance of winning a second term in his office. But for the statewide disapproval to be that high probably means a Chicago disapproval is in the 80s (percentile).

That’s just a guess on my part. But it would appear accurate, particularly since Trump used his first year in office to make more than his share of barbs against our home city. This would be payback.

We wouldn’t have any love lost for a foul-mouthed man who besmirched our otherwise elegant urban skyline with that self-promoting, not-quite-1,400-foot-tall structure that has the feel of a bully trying to overpower its surroundings.

Will we someday sing similar praises to Obama?

I know there are those who will try to claim Chicago is some sort of aberration not only in the nation but particularly with the Midwest.

BUT THEN YOU look at the Gallup findings and show that the man known as Trump isn’t really that beloved anyplace. In Iowa (52 percent disapproval), Michigan or Wisconsin (both 55 percent disapproval) or Minnesota (58 percent disapproval).

The blowhard’s rhetoric has worn thin, and we’re possibly stuck with three more years of his administration.

It almost seems as though a new generation will be singing the question, “Where have you gone, Barack Obama?” just as Simon and Garfunkel once lyrically pondered the same of Joe DiMaggio. That fact, I’m sure, would be the biggest blow to the Trump ego and the sensibilities of those who voted for him.

Is this really our nation's only hope?

As for the rest of us? We can wonder about the future (a la the sensibilities of Matt Groening); one in which a "President Lisa Simpson" bails us out, with the help of her ne'er-do-well brother, Bart.

  -30-

A decade later, and Chicago still wonderful; no matter what Trump says

Chicago is a wonderful city – the greatest on the planet, if I may say so myself.

And I say that knowing full well its history of crime, corruption, petty partisan and racial politics and the stench that once emanated from the livestock being slaughtered in the Back of the Yards neighborhood but which now comes from the professional sports teams that dare to represent the image of the Second City.

--An Introduction; December 20, 2007

  -0-

Chicago's unofficial marquee

It has been a full decade since the date upon which this weblog was created as part of an effort by myself to tell of the wonders of this great city on the shores of Lake Michigan – one that I honestly believe will always be amongst the highlights of our society.

No matter what nonsense Donald Trump may spew in hopes of gaining political support for himself from those people not fortunate enough to have ever lived here, Chicago is a place with unique attributes.

HECK, I’D ARGUE that Trump let his money speak most loudly when he built that self-monickered monstrosity of his along the Chicago River shores. He must have seen a way to make money for himself in our presence, just as many others have done throughout the decades when they chose to relocate here.

This really is a place where people from across the Midwest, and other parts of the globe to be honest, come if they want to reach greater heights than they could ever achieve in their native communities.

Would Trump have built here if Chicago really that awful?

And for those of us who are native to this place, we don’t really see the need to go elsewhere. Or, if you’re like myself, we move off to places like Springfield, Ill., or the District of Columbia – only to find ourselves become the obnoxious guy who’s constantly telling everybody there how wonderful Chicago is, and we find a reason to ultimately come back.

Now, I rarely venture any further east than Gary, Ind., where I happen to do some work for a local newspaper and I see a community that in some ways resembles the hellhole that Trump-ites would like to think Chicago is.

Holy Name, where mob hit once occurred

BUT EVEN THERE, I see what I sense is an overflow of the Chicago spirit in terms of community officials who would be justified in just packing it all in and heading off for places elsewhere. Yet they haven’t written off their chances of someday rebuilding into something significant.

Which is the spirit I most admire of Chicago – certain people who are always looking forward and how to advance our lot in society.

I’m sure some will say that anything Chicago has, New York has in greater quantities. That may even be true to a degree. Yet I don’t know of many Chicagoans who’d make the move. Or if they do, they always find ways of keeping in touch with their roots.

I’d hope that this spirit of Chicago has come through during the past 10 years, which I’ll admit I never envisioned would occur when I first started writing this weblog.

IF ANYTHING, I figured it was a way of expressing some random thoughts – almost like what I’d do if I were seeing a psychiatrist. Only instead of paying a “shrink” a fee for doctor’s visits, I’m posting for free and subjecting readers to my ramblings.

It helped that this weblog coincided with the Barack Obama years, which put a Chicago spin on many of the nation’s and world’s events. Even more so than what usually exists just because of Chicago’s position within society.

Old Gary post office as decrepit as some think Chicago is

Now, we are the target of political potshots – many from people who I sense are jealous of Chicago’s significance in ways their home communities can never be.

Now I’m not going to deny the city’s flaws. We have our self-serving politicos and certain neighborhoods that the masses are more than willing to ignore in so many ways – which results in the higher poverty levels and Gary-Ind.crime rates that the Trump-ites would like to think are typical of Chicago as a whole.

BUT THOSE OF us who get into the spirit of Chicago being a collection of some 120 neighborhoods and sub-communities know that each and every one of us has a unique version of Chicago in our minds. It’s almost as though there are 2.7 million different takes on Chicago – and that’s a good thing.

That Bear wishes he could become a Packer

This city allows all of us to maintain our sense of individuality without being gobbled up into a mass. Which is something I often have sensed of other communities – which are all too eager to tell certain people they “don’t belong.”

Of course, there are certain things that do manage to unite us. Take the aforementioned sports teams that represent Chicago.

We somehow find a way to continue to care about the Chicago Bears, who haven’t had a winning season in oh so long. And that line in the team’s fight song about the team being the “Pride and Joy of Illinois?” It seems like a fantasy that it ever was true.

  -30-

Will Midwestern U.S. govs display political pettiness for all of Asia to see?

Theoretically, it sounds good to know that our state’s governor was in Tokyo, and will spend this week on a tour of Asian nations, along with business interests that want to get those countries intrigued by the thought of doing business with us.

Can Gov. Bruce Rauner successfully urge Asian business interests to come to Illinois and Midwest? Photograph provided by state of Illinois

Bruce Rauner representing Illinois and trying to get foreign companies to spend their money in our state? It’s a wonderful idea. Yet excuse me for being skeptical that he’s capable of pulling it off.

FOR WHILE SOME people like to think Illinois’ pettiness centers around Rauner’s inability to get along with Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, and the Democrats who control the state Legislature, one could argue it is no more petty than the squabbles that occur between the governors of Illinois and the surrounding states.

As much as Rauner tries to portray this trip as his personal meeting with government interests in Japan and other parts of Asia, the fact is that both Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker are also along on this trip.

It is a chance for Midwestern U.S. interests to band together to show that this part of the country is an intriguing part that perhaps foreign interests should take more seriously than anything out east or in the land of Dixie (what with all its anti-labor measures that it tries to portray as being the key to a successful business climate).

Will Rauner be able to 'play' nice ...

Yet these are the governors who seem to think that the success of their respective states is to pick away at the business interests of Chicago whose management are petty enough to be swayed by some of those same anti-labor measures that exist in the land of Hoosiers or cheese.

TO TELL YOU the truth, the idea of those three men being put on international display scares me. It makes me think of the potential for some sort of incident that will make our part of the country come across as a batch of rubes.

Which may be enough to send those Japanese business interests off to other parts of our nation and further ensure that our Great Lakes region becomes further decrepit.

... with Govs. Walker and Holcomb?

Which I’m sure the types of people who are supportive of this Age of Trump that we’re now in will be more than willing to blame on Democratic political operatives. Even though these three particular governors are all Republican, and supposedly ought to be allied with each other.

I fear our nation’s petty political climate will be on full display this week.

SO WHAT ARE our region’s chances of benefitting from what Rauner is billing as the first international trade mission he has engaged in since being elected our state’s governor in 2014?

Let’s hope Rauner didn’t engage in gaffes when meeting with Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe just before attending the Midwest U.S.-Japan Association conference held Monday.

“Japanese companies have been instrumental in creating jobs and driving economic development throughout the state of Illinois,” Rauner said, during his address to the group.

“It is not that often that we gather together, but when we do, like for this conference, we unite with an unprecedented strength on economic growth,” the Illinois governor said.

“WE NEED TO send the message that our growth is interdependent,” he said.

Government and business officials preparing to talk Monday in Japan. Photograph provided by state of Illinois

All of which sounds nice. It’s what our governor ought to be saying with the heads of the other Great Lakes states, and in fact when dealing with all the regions of Illinois as we address our state functions.

Let’s only hope that Rauner is actually listening to the words that were prepared for him by his gubernatorial staff. If he does, then perhaps there’s a chance that Illinois can gain something of economic value from this trip. Rauner bringing back a business or two with jobs would certainly be better than a crummy t-shirt.

And if he doesn’t? Then let’s hope Rauner at least picks up an interesting souvenir, or else the trip will be nothing more than an overly-elaborate vacation-like journey at taxpayer expense.

  -30-

Some of us don't have the sense to see Chicago's wonders; we're losing people

It seems not everybody shares the love I have for this magical land built along the southwestern shores of Lake Michigan – the Census Bureau reported this week the Chicago metropolitan area is nearly 20,000 residents smaller than it was a year ago.

Long-standing cultural institutions not enough to bring people to Chicago, ...

That would be the equivalent of an entire suburban community being suddenly obliterated from the map – although I’m sure urban development types would tell me it is people fleeing the city proper to go live in those suburbs.

FOR THE RECORD, the Census Bureau estimates that the Chicago-area population (including the portions that spill over the state lines into Indiana and Wisconsin) is 9.513 million.

Officially, the last Census count in 2010 showed the Chicago area at 9.461 million people. So we’re still bigger than we were a few years ago.

But the reality is that the estimated population count for this year is a 19,570 person drop compared to last year, which was an 11,324 person drop from the year before that.

It seems that when compared to other cities across the Great Lakes region and Midwest, we’re typical. Technically, the word out of Detroit, Cleveland and St. Louis is worse.

BUT WE IN Chicago have always thought of ourselves as worthy of being held to a higher standard. Hence, we notice that places like New York and Los Angeles experienced population hikes of 2-3 percent.

... nor are the newer novelties such as 'Cloud Gate'

Not huge, but not insignificant either.

Now I’m not about to claim that the Midwest is somehow dragging Chicago down, making the city that blue dot on a red sea as way too many politically-motivated maps depict these days. If anything, I always thought Chicago was the spiritual capital of this vast region that thinks the Atlantic and Pacific oceans have nothing on that great body of water known as the Great Lakes, and that one-time Chicago Tribune publisher Robert R. McCormick sort of had the right idea that “Chicagoland” was truly unique – even if his reasons why were a little half-cocked (or maybe were ahead of his time in predicting much of the region's political support for Donald J. Trump).

Corncobs along the Chicago River ...

I did notice the one demographer who told Crain’s Chicago Business that the Chicago area population is “flatlining,” as in we’ve dropped about as low as we can get and this is the bottom.

ALTHOUGH ANYBODY WITH sense knows we don’t bottom out until we literally become a ghost town – a place of long-abandoned structures just waiting for Mother Nature to whack the one-time site of the Second City with a massive tornado that causes everything to come tumbling down.

... and a gaudier structure located upstream

Now I’m sure some people are going to want to claim the politically partisan bickering that has occurred the past few years is somehow scaring people away.

I doubt it.

Largely because I think many people have enough sense to disregard the blowhard tendencies of the government officials they elect. Besides, most of the people who want to make that line of attack are more interested in blaming the “other side” for the population loss.

This shoreline of Lake Calumet is firmly located within the city limits

THEY WANT TO lambast somebody, rather than try to figure out the solution to our problems; which, admittedly, do include the fact that a significant number of people are willing to up and leave what I will always regard as the most wonderful city on Planet Earth.

Where else will you find streets named for Goethe?

Even if there are some people, particularly of African-American persuasion, who’d rather move back South to the lands their grandparents fled. Segregation isn’t what it once was down there, and our land of opportunity has fallen off as well.

Or there may be all those other individuals who push themselves out further and further away from Chicago’s downtown core to the point where they don’t want to think of themselves as being part of the metropolitan area.

Although I’m always inclined to think those people ultimately will be “punished” for their lack of faith by finding themselves so far out in the middle of “nowhere” that they’ll wind up longing for the days when they were a part of that wondrous urban area that gave us deep dish pizza, electrified blues music and a century’s worth of mediocre-to-bad baseball – both South and North sides!

  -30-

Illinois is normal to the United States, and not just because of Normal, Ill.

Some people want to quantify everything with numbers, and that has led the FiveThirtyEight.com website to do some mathematics comparing the populations of various groupings to see how they compare to the United States as a whole.

Illinois a little of everything, just like U.S.

How representative are they of the nation? Do they truly deserve to be thought of as being just like us?

FOR WHAT IT’S worth, the Chicago metropolitan area (which by their definition stretches north to Kenosha, Wis., and east to Gary, Ind.) is the seventh most like the U.S. city in the nation.

Also, Illinois is the state most like the United States as a whole. We’re what this country is all about.

Personally, I don’t find this unusual one bit.

For the fact is that Illinois is a place consisting of so many different types of people that it is a wonder we can seriously think of ourselves as a single state. And Chicago truly is the kind of place that has a little bit of everybody.

THE FACT IS there is no “typical” American, and our populations reveal that all too well.

Considering there are times when I think northern Illinois communities would be more comfortable as a part of Wisconsin, while central Illinois municipalities might well think of either Indiana or Iowa as a better fit.

Unless they happen to live near East St. Louis, in which case they align with Missouri.

And when it comes to the 30 or so southernmost counties of the state, Little Egypt probably really does think more highly of Kentucky and wonder how their home state isn’t a part of Dixie.

OF COURSE, those in metro Chicago often joke about how we’d be a better state if we didn’t have to carry all those other rubes who probably wish they were a part of some other state.

From Chicago to Cairo, ...

 We don’t have a common identity in Illinois like they do in, say, Texas.

Just like we don’t have a common identity for our nation. We are a collection of regions, each with their own character. We manage to come together to amass a single nation – but that doesn’t mean any single region is willing to subvert itself to the character of the whole.

So Illinois’ split really does make us a microcosm of the nation as a whole. We have a little bit of everybody that makes up the nation.

HECK, THE NEW York Times came up with a study of how the 50 states should be done away with and replaced by seven regions – which would unite those of similar character.

As it is, Illinois would be split in that study into three regions – Great Lakes, Great Plains and the Southeast Manufacturing Belt.

Our Chicago would be in a “state” with Detroit, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Kansas City and Minneapolis.

Which I’m sure some would say have more in common than being in a state with Rockford, the Quad Cities and Marion.

NOW I’M NOT calling for any split like this. Personally, I always found the distinct regions that felt like separate places in and of themselves as being what made Illinois a unique place.

I enjoy sharing a boundary with a place like Champaign or Bloomington (where I went to college), or even the afore-mentioned town of Normal (which is a nice place to visit, but with 85.1 percent white people living there is not the norm for the United States).

 

... we have quite the variety in Illinois

Besides, I found it interesting to see that while Illinois was the state most like the nation as a whole, Indiana was a place third-most like what the U.S. was like back in the 1950s.

We in Illinois have progressed while our Hoosier neighbors haven’t. Which may be why no amount of political rhetoric about the superiority of Indiana will ever be believable.

  -30-

Spring time in Chicago? More like a twisted Midwestern winter wonderland!

On the fourth day of spring time, my true love gave to me, four sloppy inches of snow.

Only in Chicago could something like that be taken literally, and not be the least bit of a surprise.

FOR IT’S TRUE. The spring equinox came on Friday. We’re literally out of the winter season. Spring training baseball in Arizona is well underway. The sloppy, slushy snowfall that can cause massive traffic headaches ought to be behind us.

Yet on Monday, we got hit with anywhere from two to five inches of snow – depending on where in metro Chicago one lives. The further north toward the Illinois/Wisconsin border, the heavier the snowfall!

The four-inch figure comes from what was measured at O’Hare International Airport, where some 250 flights scheduled for Monday morning had to be cancelled and delays ran as long as 90 minutes in length.

All of the Streets and Sanitation Department’s trucks had plows attached and were out working to try to keep the streets cleared. Illinois Department of Transportation officials were doing the same on the interstate highways – although that didn’t prevent an auto accident from occurring this morning that involved the official motorcade of Gov. Bruce Rauner.

THE CAR THAT the governor was riding in was not hit. But it seems that one of the vehicles carrying his security team struck another car, with the sloppy road conditions being blamed.

A police officer was taken to an area hospital, although was treated and released. No major injuries involved, which is fortunate.

Now two months ago, none of this would have been the least bit interesting (well maybe the gubernatorial motorcade in an accident would have gotten a brief mention). But the rest of this would have been chalked up to “winter as usual” in the great Midwestern U.S.

But this is springtime. We’re supposed to be past this.

EVEN THOUGH I realize that the National Weather Service records indicate that Chicago has been hit with snowfall as late as May 11, and that the latest snowfall of an inch or more of the not-so-fluffy stuff came on May 4 (back in 1907, for those who are interested).

But it was still a depressing jolt to wake up Monday morning, flip on a television set tuned to The Weather Channel and see that they felt the most intriguing meteorological event in the United States was a live shot of the Michigan Avenue bridge over the Chicago River so we could see the snow falling on the city.

Made worse by the fact that when I looked out the window, I saw heavy snowfall burying my neighborhood to the point where I couldn’t see any street.

Fortunately for me, the places I had to go to on Monday were for things happening in late afternoon.

BY THAT TIME, the snow had long stopped falling. In fact, by about 1 p.m., the streets had sort of been cleared – although it was quite obvious that a layer of grayish slop still remained on top of the pavement.

Keep in mind that this came just days after the Chicago winter weather season officially ended with temperatures routinely getting into the 50-degree range, and one day when I was seriously overdressed in a sweatshirt because the temperature got up to the low 70s.

Which the weather forecasts indicate is likely to return within days. Supposedly by Wednesday, we’re going to have sunshine and temperatures in the low 60s. Just envision the mess from the melt we’ll face by then!

I understand its worse further northwest (I have aunts in the greater Minneapolis area got whacked this weekend with harsher snowfall). But it makes me wonder what we could have done to offend Mother Nature so bad – or is it all her idea of a sick joke?

  -30-

Beginning to look like winter

When I got into my car and began driving Friday morning, I had an "experience" I hadn't felt in quite a while.

I tried making a left turn, only to find that I was out of control of my vehicle. I was slipping and sliding on the snow.

I'D LIKE TO think my driver education teacher of some three decades ago would have been pleased to see my reaction -- I took my foot off the gas pedal and kept my hands firmly on the steering wheel.

All the while trying to turn against the direction the car was sliding in, until I was finally able to straighten myself out. The whole thing took a few seconds, I didn't hit anything (or anyone) and I felt like I was in control of my car even though -- technically speaking -- I wasn't.

My point in reciting this moment from my life isn't that I'm one of these people who thinks the whole world ought to be obsessed with my life's every minute happening.

It's just that I can't remember the last time I slid on snow. Which means it was actually snowing.

ALL OF THOSE snowplows were out, public works crews of every sort were busy. Those stockpiles of salt were put to work.

Because early Friday, for the first time in 335 days, we got a measurable amount of snow -- 1.1 inches, according to the National Weather Service types based at O'Hare International Airport.

Heck, even the lovely ladies of The Weather Channel were astounded Friday morning to see actual snow in Chicago. We haven't had a measureable amount of the white, fluffy stuff since last February.

We definitely didn't have a "white" Christmas. All we've had are light traces that barely lasted a few hours, let alone the entire cycle of a day.

A PART OF me has been feeling paranoid because of the lack of snow this winter. This is the Great Midwest. It's supposed to snow.

WGN-TV's renowned meteorologist Tom Skilling told the Chicago Tribune that we'd have 18 inches of the fluffy (or sometimes slushy) stuff by this point in winter.

It all makes me wonder if we're going to get whalloped with a monster storm later this winter season that will do massive devastation to Chicago.

Maybe something along the lines of that Feb. 2, 2011 storm that dumped a foot of snow on us in a 24-hour period. Or perhaps worse, something that would make the story seem like gentle kisses on a cool, spring day.

I'D LIKE TO think the fact that we got hit with a noticeable snowstorm somehow lessens the chance we're going to suffer come February or early March.

I can handle my car sliding about a bit now. It's the way things are supposed to be this time of year. What we have experienced in recent weeks has been downright unnatural.

Heck, I haven't even minded the sub-freezing temperatures of recent days just because I realize if I had to have a mild winter, I'd give serious thought to relocating myself to Florida.

Where at least I could be on hand for the March ritual of baseball spring training -- which will be combined this year with the playing of the World Baseball Classic tournament.

COME EARLY MARCH, I likely will be intrigued by the performances of potential powerhouse teams from Cuba and the Dominican Republic, wondering how Mexico's national team will fare, seeing if the United States can finally prevail in the game invented here -- and wondering above all if anyone can defeat Japan (winners of the tournament the two times it has been played).

The last thing I'm going to want is to wish I were in Puerto Rico or Arizona -- all on account of being snowed in here in Chicago.

  -30-

Did we set a record for snow?

This weather soon history. Photo by Gregory Tejeda

I despise the slop of snowfall as much as anyone else does.

Yet I can’t get myself all excited about the fact that we likely broke a record for the most days in the Chicago area without any measurable snowfall.

IT SEEMS THAT when we went without snow on Sunday, it was the 280^th consecutive day without any of Suzy Snowflake’s friends paying us a visit. That tied the old mark set back in 1994.

When Monday turned out to be nothing more than a foggy, overcast day with only limited flakes (less than 1/10^th of an inch of snow), 2012 went into the record books.

Yet what does it really mean?

Think about it; 280 days is just barely over nine months. Which means we made it through the spring, summer and autumn months without any snowfall. Isn’t that the way things are supposed to be?

I CAN’T GET all excited, particularly since it seems it’s just a matter of days before we get the first snowfall of this winter season (even if winter proper doesn’t begin until Dec. 21).

I also see those weather reports from the weekend that show how Minneapolis got whomped this weekend (almost as bad as the Chicago Bears got beat), and how heavy snowfall is moving through Wisconsin and Michigan.

How long until it dips down and pays Illinois a visit?

I just don’t see that we have really accomplished much of anything. The “record” for the longest time period without a snowfall in Chicago strikes me as being the equivalent of those sports broadcasters who tell us a hitter’s batting average against left-handed pitchers during Tuesdays in August.

THE SIMPLE FACT is that we’re in December, and it’s going to snow soon. Hopefully, it won’t be one of those heavy storms that shuts the city down – although it is inevitable that we’re going to get hit with one of those in coming months.

We’re in the Midwestern U.S. It snows here. That’s just fact.

There’s also another reason why I can’t get into the spirit of us having had a record-length period of time without any snowfall – it wasn’t that long ago that we had that storm of historic proportions.

You remember February of 2011. You remember Lake Shore Drive being totally covered and shut down for a time. I remember feeling fortunate that I do much of my income-earning work from home, because I wouldn’t have been able to make it to any traditional workplace for a couple of days.

IN FACT, THE memories are still vivid of having to go outside with a shovel and dig my brother’s car out, because he was trying to drive back home and it got stuck in a snowdrift about a half-block from his residence.

It helped that a pair of our neighbors saw our plight and came out with their own shovels. My brother eventually was able to drive to the residence and park his car – at which point he then came inside and passed out in his bed from exhaustion (he had just finished working a shift).

That storm feels so recent that I have a hard time accepting that we had a lengthy stint without any snow! Record my tushy.

I honestly feel like we ought to be entitled to much more time before we get the first snowfall of this winter season. It hasn’t been long enough since we had to worry about shoveling snow and keeping our walkways clear enough so that we don’t slip and fall on our collective heinies!

  -30-

Will Midwestern U.S. send Obama back to White House for four more years?

It’s just a matter of time before the presidential campaign devolves into an attempt to portray Barack Obama as a Chicago political hack unworthy of re-election. Mitt Romney will find some way of using that label – most likely in a lame, nonsensical way.

Which is why I couldn’t help but be amused to learn of the results of a new Gallup Organization poll that studied presidential candidate popularity by region.

FOR IT SEEMS that Obama “wins” the support of Midwesterners. Could it be the fact that Obama is an adopted Chicagoan that makes him seem a little more comprehendible than a candidate who can claim Michigan in his family tree – but really isn’t clear about where he’s from or what his “home” region is!

It would be hilarious to see how the ideologues try to explain the fact that Obama’s origins are his strength, and not a weakness because he’s not “just like them.”

For the record, the Gallup poll had Obama leading Romney on Thursday by a 47-44 percent lead. It’s slim. It’s not going to be a large, overwhelming margin like in 2008.

Insofar as regionalism is concerned, Obama is the preference of the East Coast, while Romney gets solid support from the South – both of which are completely predictable outcomes.

AS FOR THE West and the Midwest, Obama leads Romney in both regions, although by not much. In the Midwest, Obama leads Romney 46-44 percent.

And while there are some Midwesterners who want to view Chicago as a drag on the region, there will be others who will be unable to back a Massachusetts resident who has no chance of winning his own home state.

OBAMA: Regional backing

Indiana is likely to wind up shifting its Electoral College votes back toward the GOP candidate this time around (it really was a fluke that the state went for Obama in ’08). But Illinois could wind up being joined by Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin in giving Camp Obama a base to rely upon.

Heck, even those Cleveland and Toledo voters may wind up overcoming the Cincinnati electorate, which would result in putting Ohio in the Democratic Party column on Nov. 6.

PART OF WHAT is involved in this, according to Gallup, is the fact that non-white people are overwhelmingly for Obama. Which probably means they’re really more opposed to GOPers with their hostile rhetoric and are willing to take it out on Romney’s presidential aspirations.

Which also is what makes it so predictable that Vice President Joe Biden would go for the jugular on Thursday when he spoke in Houston to the NAACP convention.

He got the string of “boos” from the African-American crowd when he brought up the name “Robert Bork” and suggested that a Romney administration would be filled with similar ideologues.

When Biden says the election cycle this year, “is a fight for the heart and soul of America,” I’d argue that we’ll find that “heart and soul” right here in the Midwestern U.S. – the part of the nation that has as its symbolic capital our city of Chicago.

WHICH MAKES ME wonder if the Midwest has become what Illinois used to be – the bellwether that provides a sample for how the election will turn out as a whole!

For as Gallup noted in their poll background info, the only election cycle of the past 25 years where Midwesterners did not support the overall popular vote winner was in 2000.

And we all recall that Election ’00 was truly the ultimate fluke – a set of circumstances we’re never going to see repeated in our electoral lifetimes.

  -30-